Energetic components

Repair and maintenance activities are not eligible when they constitute stand-alone operational support or routine in-service maintenance. However, such activities may be considered eligible where they directly contribute to an industrial reinforcement action.

As indicated in the first call for proposals for IRA calls, Single applicants or consortia may apply. Consortia must not exceed 15 legal entities. SEAPs may participate alone or as part of a consortium. Proposals that include activities within the meaning of Article 12(1)(d) of the EDIP Regulation and where no SEAP participates must be submitted by consortia that are composed of at least 3 independent entities from 2 different EU Member States (only beneficiaries count; not affiliated entities). For more details, please refer to the call document, already available in the F&T portal.

Information on the infrastructure, facilities, assets and resources used by subcontractors to perform the action should be included in the participants information document requested as part of the application file.

Costs related to the construction or acquisition of buildings and infrastructure may be eligible where they are strictly necessary for the implementation of the industrial reinforcement action linked to the activities referred to in Article 12(1) of the EDIP Regulation. Such costs must be specifically justified and demonstrably linked to the project activities. Infrastructures, including general site infrastructures, that are not strictly necessary to enable the industrial reinforcement action will not be eligible for funding.

No, neither the costs related to the procurement of the final defence products nor their components nor their corresponding raw materials is eligible.

EDIP calls appear under EDF technical configuration framework in the Funding and Tender portal. However, all EDIP calls and topics are clearly identified with EDIP in their identifiers (e.g. EDF-EDIP-2026-XXX).

The same does apply with the Model Grant Agreement which is common for actions funded via lump-sum both under EDF and EDIP, with some provisions only applying to EDIP and some others only applying to EDF.

This does not imply that there is any link between the EDF and the EDIP Regulations, which are fully independent.

There is no requirement under the EDIP Regulation or the EDF-EDIP-P-2026-LS-IRA-EC call to submit LoI/LoS.

Applicants may still submit other supporting documents, including letters from Ministries of Defence (or linked entities) or financial institutions, where relevant for the evaluation of the proposal or the credibility of the financing and budgetary arrangements.

The call document provides instructions on how to submit sensitive information under 11. How to submit an application, and more specifically : The zip archive must be submitted password-protected (using AES-256 encryption method), with a size of less than 100 MB. The password (and any other passwords used in the documents) must be communicated before the deadline for submission to the following email address: DEFIS-EDIP-PROPOSALS-PWD@ec.europa.eu (together with the proposal ID and the name of the zip archive).

The relevant procurement-related templates are designed so as not to require disclosure of commercially sensitive information such as supplier identity or detailed pricing information. The requested information is limited to categories of components, percentages, practices to determine origin and the existence of appropriate procurement/compliance frameworks.

The Information webinar on Industrial Reinforcement Actions (IRA) within the European Defence Industrial Programme (EDIP) will take place on May 27th 10.00-12.00 (Brussels time).

The webinar will be open to registered participants, targeting specifically eligible applicants as well as representatives from Member States/Associated countries. The webinar will consist of a presentation by DG DEFIS on IRA calls (both under EDIP and USI) and conditions to apply, replies to FAQs that have been sent beforehand to DG DEFIS and a live Q&A session.

Submit your registration application ec.europa.eu, by Monday May 25th .

More information on EDIP IRA, including tutorials, can be found at the EDIP IRA homepage, where you will also be able to stream the webinar afterwards.

The IRA call conditions define “tier-1 components” as “ those procured directly by the end manufacturer independently of their functionality or criticality in the defence product.

There is no reference to “main components” in the definition of Tier-1 component. It refers to all Tier-1 procured components related to the product whose capacity is being increased.

Please be aware that the call conditions foresee two calculation methods, one of them allowing to take into account Tier-1 components and the total manufacturing costs at the level of subsystems built in-house together with the cost of the Tier-1 procured components ready to be integrated directly in the production capacity being increased until (but excluding the last manufacturing process ahead of the packaging and quality control).

Dissemination and communication activities are not part of the evaluation criteria. Those details will be discussed during the Grant Agreement Preparation (GAP) and implementation of the GA, in full consideration of the sensitivity of the information.

For details on project duration, please refer to the applicable call conditions. For example, according to the call EDF-EDIP-P-2026-LS-IRA, actions shall not have started before 5 March 2024 and shall not have been completed before the signature of the Grant Agreement (GA). The duration and the starting date of the action will be set out in the GA. The action shall have an indicative duration of three to five years; in any event, it shall be completed no later than 31 December 2033.

Loitering munitions are listed as possible targeted defence products in the IRA-EC, IRA-PE and USI-MAB calls. No standardised definition is given but loitering munitions are expendable unmanned weapon systems designed to loiter over an area before being directed onto a target. The assessment will be made in light of the scope/objectives of the relevant topic under the applicable call conditions.

The video recording and the slides of the info session are available online:

Video youtu.be

Slides defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu

The contribution for the optional work package is included in the overall ceiling for the maximum EU contribution per project.

Based on the applicable IRA call conditions and Article 12 EDIP, the project is considered completed once the supported production capacity has been installed, commissioned and is operational in accordance with the objectives, deliverables, milestones and KPIs defined in the grant agreement.

The published call conditions do not establish a requirement to demonstrate a predefined minimum production volume or a minimum duration of production activity after commissioning. However, where production-output KPIs, ramp-up targets or operational-performance indicators are included in the proposal and grant agreement, applicants may be required to demonstrate achievement of those commitments.

In the context of the EDIP declaration, “non-reimbursable public or private sources” refers to non-reimbursable financing instrument, that may be either public or private (e.g grant, procurement contract, but not limited to it).

When the applicant has to repay the funding of the action in any way, this is classified as “own financing”. This type of financing that would require reimbursement/repayments can include:

- Loans;

- any other action that could require reimbursement/repayment with the undertaking’s own funds.

Article 10.2(d) of the EDIP Regulation states that actions or parts thereof, that are already fully financed from other public or private sources, shall not be eligible for funding under EDIP. This would be the case for instance of an action, or part thereof, that has been funded to 100 % of its costs and through a non-reimbursable financial instrument.

In this case, the action, or the part thereof that has already been fully financed by a non-reimbursable instrument, cannot qualify as eligible for funding under EDIP.

However, even if the action, or part thereof, was funded to 100 % of its costs, if the financial instrument was a reimbursable one then the action, or the part thereof can qualify as eligible for funding under EDIP.

Under the applicable award criteria and evaluation guidance, “cross-border cooperation” is not limited to formal consortium composition. The assessment may also take into account subcontracting, supply-chain participation, technology provision, raw-material supply and other cross-border industrial cooperation involving entities established in different Member States or associated countries, including “subcontractors” and “other legal entities in the supply chain”, cooperating in the implementation of the action.

The EC does not request information on the control and ownership of subcontractors. However, the subcontracting work must be performed in the EU.

The origin of purchased tier-1 component is independent from ownership/control of the manufacturer. For components imported into the EU (+AC/UA), the origin is as shown in the customs documents or purchase documents, in line with the relevant customs laws. In the case of components bought within the EU (+AC/UA), origin is defined as the place where the component underwent its last substantial, economically justified processing or working, in an undertaking equipped for that purpose and resulting in the manufacture of a new product or representing an important stage of manufacture, in compliance with the definition in the EU Customs Code.

A project that is completed before the signature of the grant agreement is not eligible for IRA funding.